The Purge

[Whiskey Tango]

the premise is outlandish and would never work in the real world.

Congratulations, you've just identified 95% of all movies ever.

 

[KenK]

It's a remarkably bizarre film.

 

[terry78]

All the "this would never happen in real life" comments....did you forget where you are for a minute?

 

[DaRkVeNgeanCe]

I don't recall seeing a tagline "based on true events" when I saw the trailer.

 

[Alien Anal]

Gee just imagine if Chris Nolan directed it. The internet would explode!

 

[samsnee]

All the "this would never happen in real life" comments....did you forget where you are for a minute?

For me, there's a diff between a fantastical premise like superheroes fighting aliens and one where a future society reduces crime by allowing all crime to be legal for one night. It's a fine line, but I think the latter falls short based on all the legal questions it raises.

 

[Ultimatehero]

Minority Report - arrest someone before they committ a crime based off what a psychic says.

How politically realistic is that? Not superhero, but politics has no place here at all due to all the absurd politics films throw our way. Films aren't there to provide a 100% accurate political future, they're there to show the 'what if' scenario.

 

[The Dark Defender]

$36 mill opening weekend...$33 mill over its budget within 3 days.

At this point a sequel is practically guaranteed within a year or two.

 

[Donut]

This will be #3 next weekend anyway

 

[The Dark Defender]

Won't matter now. Once you make $33 mill over your budget opening weekend you don't need legs for the movie to be a big hit.

 

[samsnee]

Minority Report - arrest someone before they committ a crime based off what a psychic says.

How politically realistic is that? Not superhero, but politics has no place here at all due to all the absurd politics films throw our way. Films aren't there to provide a 100% accurate political future, they're there to show the 'what if' scenario.

I thought Minority Report wasn't too bad. The only flaw in logic I saw was how exactly would they take the program national unless they get more precogs somehow. To each their own though.

 

[SuperBatman]

The Movie is already a success and there already planning a Sequel. I haven't seen it yet but I hope to see it sometime this week most likely tomorrow.

 

[terry78]

I dug Aldis Hodge's brother as the Bloody Stranger. Give that brother more work.

 

[Lasirius]

Congratulations, you've just identified 95% of all movies ever.

Seriously.

 

[Ultimatehero]

No, because everyone here picked up on it and commented about it or a lot did at least. Saying a movie is bad or that you don't like it is one thing. But to say you don't like it because of how unrealistic it is is rather comical because no films (unless they are documentaries or biopics or what have you) are realistic. I have yet to hear about masterminds even like Jigsaw (The Saw guy, I think...) being in the realms of realism.

 

[redhawk23]

My problem with the movie isn't that the premise is unrealistic (its basically just a Twilight Zone premise anyways, you just roll with it and see what you can do with it).

My problem is that the second half of the film really undercuts the first.

The first half of the film has some good satire and some interesting ideas about class relations and the role of violence in our society, and it is certainly taking a critical stance on the matter.

In the world of the film, the official stance is that violence is necessary because it is simply a baser part of our nature that we must give into and that our lives will be more enriched if we just admit it. This definitely mirrors a lot of attitudes in real life, especially biologically deterministic ideals for gender roles and justifications of warfare. The film argues the counter argument though that violence just serves to protect the status quo and exploit the poor and powerless.

The non-sensical premise allows for needed distance to examine parallels to phenomena and attitudes that exist in the real world. Really this is the strength of a lot of fiction and science fiction in particular.

But then it shifts gears to "Yeah the violence in our society is messed up, but its awesome if you're a badass!" and just kind of becomes a gun-nuts dream scenario where all of their paranoia and "Castle Law" mantras are finally justified. The gun fights of home invasion, particularly the hand to hand fights on the pool table are really effective but counteract a lot of the groundwork laid at the beginning of the movie.

In undercutting its point, it makes it so there largely isn't one and all of the class and race relations, and the extreme violence towards the lone black man in the film by the rich white suburbanites instead simply becomes just kind of exploitative.

This movie actually had quite a bit going for it, but it got lost in the woods.


Also, with a premise as ridiculous as it already was, they really should not have specified a year, much less one barely a decade from now.

 

[Ultimatehero]

Now that makes sense. Seeing it in about an hour. I'm wondering if there were two screenwriters on this thing. That the first half was one writer who had a lot they wanted to say and the studio thought the second half was too tame so they brought somebody else in to mess it up. Or if the studio imposed said writer to go that explosive in the second half. I'm just going to be, hopefully, entertained. But, that could be and sounds like studio measures.

 

[redhawk23]

Its also just a matter that violence plays really well on film and whoever coordinated the stunt work on this was really skilled. It feels like a weird thing to criticize a film for, because its really well done, it just doesn't serve the film overall.

And given that the film is largely concept based, at least at first, I don't think I'm just over thinking it. I just don't think the film followed through.

 

[Ultimatehero]

Well, as said, that would point to two different minds coming into play. It almost sounds like, and I'm guessing here and could be wrong, the film feels like two separate movies. The first which is analytical and the second which is action oriented. Which to me sounds like two guys working on it or studio pressure rather than one unified go-at-it.

 

[Showtime]

Hello.

Hopefully these debates can continue with out the name calling.

 

[Ultimatehero]

I thought Minority Report wasn't too bad. The only flaw in logic I saw was how exactly would they take the program national unless they get more precogs somehow. To each their own though.

Not saying it was. But, I don't go to movies looking for realism unless it sets out to be a realistic movie.

I'm starting to wonder if 'The Strangers' has any impact on that because out of dozens of horror movies - that one always comes off the most like it could be real. And since that was a home invasion flick, wondering how much that is impacting people suddenly demanding realism out of the blue for a horror movie...

 

[Victarion]

Gee just imagine if Chris Nolan directed it. The internet would explode!

It would be better presented, at the very least. Good concept but it needs a bit of worldbuilding to add plausibility. At the best, I could see special underground clubs for the creme-de-la-creme of society where the patrons indulge in all manner of excesses--sex, drink, food, violence--to keep it from spilling into the workplace. I'm talking high ranking politicians, military men, business/corporation presidents and the like who need to be devoted to their job.

 

[Motown Marvel]

Movie was okay. The premise was better than the execution. It's a weird idea that you would like to see explored, but it can never be explored enough when it's confined to a house. It just turns into a standard home invasion movie that is grossly predictable at every turn.

Also

Spoiler

the dad spends half the movie roaming around this mansion looking for his daughter. Call her damn cell phone rather than wandering aimlessly through the house. For the love of god!

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

Minority Report - arrest someone before they committ a crime based off what a psychic says.

The thing about Minority Report is in our ever expanding police state of drones, NSA wiretaps and CCTV on every street-corner, it's perfectly conceivable that if the government had the technology to target thought-crimes to prevent real crimes they would (they already do that with some suspected terrorists who talk about plots, but haven't committed them yet). This movie's premise is ridiculous because unlike Min Report, there's no natural progression from our current society to a society that lets people rape and murder at will. We're getting less free, not more free. Second, it doesn't make an iota of sense that this would be a catharsis for people and drive the unemployment rate down. This would cause massive unrest and anarchy. No one would feel safe or secure in such a society. People would murder their bosses. Parents would move to a different country out of fear for their children. And this happens in 9 years? This is why I can't buy into this at all. I can shut off my brain for a movie, but I can only suspend my disbelief so far. Maybe if it took place in a couple hundred years instead of less than a decade away it would be easier to swallow. To me, the premise seems inventive, but ultimately too silly to invest in or take seriously.

 

[Motown Marvel]

I think the reason for the unemployment drop was because the people getting killed in the purge were the lower class unemployed. The less unemployed people living, the lower unemployment is.

The idea is all totally ridiculous, but its clearly an allegory for current government laws that create class warfare. It works for the purpose of the movie. The law itself is the least of my issues with the film.